The last of the Poundstock Pirates. Cornish Pirates & Famous Pirates of Cornwall. The Pirateers. Cornish smuggling wreckers from Cornwall on the north coast of England. Pirate ghosts, Pirate mysteries, and Cornish Pirate images, Pirateers Album and songs,

Poundstock is a tiny Cornish hamlet nestling on the spectacular northern coast of beautiful Cornwall in England. A quiet place up to this very day, she has been a dark and sinister corner of this ancient isle.

Silent and shrouded in a foggy cloak of ancient British mystery and intrigue. Hiding her darkest secrets Tales of the dreaded Cornish Pirates they once called the Pirateers.

Today Poundstock is peacefully, almost anonymously hidden beyond the tall rugged cliffs of the north Cornwall shores where the great moors meet the cold, cold Celtic seas and the mighty Atlantic Ocean relentlessly thunders in.

With ner'the a Cornish Pirate is to be seen.

Or is there?

What was once an ancient cluster of stone built cottages harbouring some of Cornwall's darkest and most forboding secrets, is today a tranquil rural beauty spot with scattered and tidy private residences and cottages. A haunt for vacationers, unaware of its grim past.

Poundstock's parish church of St. Winwaloe
who fled to Brittany to avoid the plague, still hides as many a ghost and their dreadful secrets as she does rooks in her trees. And they see and have seen all.

It's a forboding and sinister story to tell.

Poundstock Church Cornwall hid the Pirateers bones

Cornwall. The Parish Church at Poundstock where many a Pirates is buried in the graveyard

A Cornish Pirates Prayer

Money from the land - wasn't happening

Silver in the hand, is a better thing.

God bless the contraband and the smuggling

Below the fields of Poundstock..

Narrative prevails to this very day of the existence of the most unnerving kind of Cornish Pirates. Stories are whispered speaking of dreadful events that befell any man of the sea adrift in these waters. Each is kept silenced by ashen granite walls and protected by a chilly Cornish dread.

For it is here, set amongst the long forgotten Cornish mists of time, that Britain's most notorious pirates, the ones they called the Pirateers, set out on their acts of plunder and destruction upon the Celtic sea.

But who were these cold and calculating Cornish Pirates sorry and never forgiven prey?

'Tis said that any man or vessel that dared cross the great Widemouth sound beneath the tallest cliffs of Cornwall, far below the green, green fields of Poundstock were once at the Cornish pirates mercy.

And of mercy, there was none.

For no man was safe in the eyes of these men. Nor in these times. Or ever was in their treacherous Cornish waters.

Many a romantic story may be told of charismatic British Pirates and crafty, yet canny Cornish smugglers. Tales of swashbuckling and some say, gallant Cornish men who commandeered against the crown for the good of the village, but who in truth, lined their own pockets with gold Doubloons and the spoils of a pirates vicious plunder.

The kegs, the chests and the bales hauled up from the beach, below the fields of Poundstock, Mevagissy, Port Isaac and Padstow are a dreadful testimony to that.

Of the most infamous Cornish Pirates, the Poundstock Pirateers, little is recorded or has been uncovered from the depths of time until now. Other than but the one well recorded but terrible tale of
the fate of William Penfound. He was a Poundstock churchman who stumbled and then fell beneath the wrath of the Poundstock Pirateers who feared the worse.

A certain betrayal by one of their own.

Here was a man by day of the cloth and by night, they say, a far different and less sensitive being.

These were desperate men. Men of Poundstock and Week, men of Bridwill and Treskinnick. Private men who dealt with the threat of breaking that silence without any mercy. In so doing, leaving the whole of Cornwall in no doubt about how such matters would be dealt with if ever the stolid vale of secrecy became fractured.

William Penfolds most public slaying beneath the shadow of the Poundstock church altar was an event that secured the silence of Cornishmen forever.

Way beyond the law of England is the answer. For there was none to speak of in Cornwall in those ancient times but the pirates own laws - and it ruled mercilessly.

Step outside a Cornish pirates silence and whisper the name of a Pirateer to a stranger, even to the wind and the plunge off High Cliffs three hundred foot precipices into the raging seas off Cancleave Strand below green Cornish fields of Poundstock, would be the easy way out for the pirates informer.
But remember, the savage retribution meted out far more publicly by Poundstocks' most secretive clansmen, would be far, far worse than the long drop into the grey, grey ocean.

Church image North Cornwall

Church image North Cornwall

So where then lies the famous Cornish Pirates of Poundstock treasure trove?

To be certain, there's always a treasure connected with such tales of pirate privateering. A whisper telling of pirates plunder buried somewhere far out of reach of man?
And in this north Cornish land of special legend, their surely must be one laid to rest somewhere?

And indeed there is but where?

How about here?

Here is a recently discovered Cornish pirates treasure map found with an ancient and faded manuscript:

'From Millook Common east of Bynorth cliff lies 'The Den' watched over by the Ravens beak' it reads.

And now it is patently clear why the Poundstock Pirates secret Dens' name still stands and beckons treasure hunters after centuries have passed.

It is said that somewhere near this ancient piratical gathering place hidden away in North Cornwall, a spot between the great Dizzard tumulus and Penhalt cliff, forgotten by time, if not buried by time herself with fear, is a long lost pile of buried pirate treasure.

The treasure known as the Poundstock Hoard.

From the thousands of sailing vessels who must have dared cross the great Bay of Widemouth by Stratton in the Cornish Pirateers era, be she Spaniard, Norseman, Britain or fine rigged Englishman bound for Bristol from Rangoon with a cargo of tea and silver, all were a rightful prey for the dreadful Poundstock Pirateers and the Lundy pirates. For they forgave no man and took all.

Set hopeless men adrift and burned all keels. And a slave ship was a prime target.

The owners and their crews were far above evil in the eyes of a Cornish Pirateer when off the Cornish coast line. Prime targets too for retribution and stocked well and handsomely for the long voyage south, far beyond the shores of Cornwall.

The Cornwall Pirateers did well from a slaver. Oh yes they did.

Widemouth Bay is the Haunt of the Pirateers

Widemouth Bay Cornwall. Home to the Cornish Pirates, the Poundstock Pirateers

Today, only the ghostly memories are left of the long forgotten Poundstock pirates, the freebooters of Cornwall.

Her secretive but ruthless long forgotten Cornish Pirateers who's souls it is said, cannot escape the mists of the Cornish cliff tops but who live on to this very day, behind the darkened eyes of the jet black rooks who live in the boughs of her ancient arbours below the church of Poundstock.

Cornish Pirates and the History of Pirateering and Smuggling in Cornwall:

Information about Cornish pirates and the smugglers with pirates hailing from Boscastle, Bude, Stratton and Port Isaac.

Pirates who were also prevelent from Cornwall were those rebel gangs from Penruan, Fowey, Crantock, Gorran Haven, Looe and Mousehole, Polperro, St Ives and Portloe.

Cornish tourism not only depends upon her fine sandy beaches but depends upon its many holiday attractions in Cornwall, and the Pirates of the north Cornish coast and other Cornish coastal villages are a legendary draw for holidaymakers.

When the pirates of Cornwall first plundered the coastal waters off the Cornish coast, no vessel was safe from the Pirateers boats. Keel hauled or marooned, the pirates of Cornwall would ultimately win over the sailors of the navy.

There were the Mevagissy pirates, Looe pirates, the pirates of Cadgwith Cove, the legendary Newquay pirates and pirates also from the Cornish village of St Ives. They all prowled the Cornish coastal waters below the coast path relentlessly searching for hapless victims upon the Celtic sea.

They say that the Pirates of Poundstock and Stratton hauled their pirate booty over Bodmin moor to Jamaica Inn and sold it to travellers on the old turnpike. But little is known of the Ship inn in Wadbridge where booty and pirate treasure is said to have been stored with the beer kegs and shipped out from Wadebridge quay and from Padstow harbour in the depths of night.

The picturesque village of Porthleven in Cornwall too had its share of pirates and brandishing buccaneers as did Falmouth where pirateering was rife. These pirates set sail from Porthleven harbour armed to the teeth in search of a drifting sloop or tall ship, a cutter or a brigadoon.

Read more about Cornish Pirates: Including the Newquay pirates, the Port Isaac Pirates, Port Isaac smugglers, the St Ives Pirates and the Privateers of the Lizard peninsula. The Boscastle pirates and Cadgwith pirates, Cawsand pirateering too.

The pirates of Falmouth harbour it’s said, press ganged Cornish men into their pirate bands as did the pirates of Fowey, Crantock, Gorran Haven, Looe and Mousehole, Polperro and Penruan, villages which all sported pirate bands and smugglers set to rob and steal, sink and scupper.

One particular pirate tale comes from the Cornish coastal village of Port Isaac, home for Fishermans Friends, the shanty men of Cornwall and so too of the television series Doc Martin, which has made Port Isaac a major tourist attraction in itself for Cornish visitors from all over the world.

If you are lucky and don’t get stopped by a pirate, you may see Fishermans Friends singing on Port Isaac harbour, in Port Isaac’s pubs or even in Port Isaacs streets. Though Port Isaac is closed to the public when filming begins for the Doc Martin series.

Back to Port Isaac’s pirates.

When Port Isaac was a simple fishing village, before Port Isaacs harbour breakwater was built and long before many of the songs that Fishermans Friends sing in the village were even written, it’s said that pirates set sail from the harbour dressed as fishermen in the dead of night.

From Trebarwith Strand to the Hartland Peninsular, right across Widemouth bay they preyed on shipping and vessels from all nations.

Today, just like Port Isaacs Fishermans Friends, the Cornish Pirateers sing hearty shanty songs about Cornish pirates and buccaneers all over Cornwall and tell tales of Cornish history, of gallant highwaymen and pirates in a celebration of the Cornish people.

Their new album is out soon.

Prussia Cove was the most noted smuggling cove between Penzance and Porthleven.
John Carter was the King of Prussia
Cove and a smuggler notorious.

Cruel Coppinger rallied his Pirates and Smugglers from the lands north of Bude and Crackington Haven towards Kilkhampton and Clovelly where the Devon Pirates hid.

From Lundy island, pirates ships hunted merchentmen and other vessels.
Lady Killigrew, was the first Cornish female pirate.

In the history of Cornwall, the Cornwall pirates have included Pirates from Port Isaac, pirates from the Lizard, Pirates from Penzance, Pirates of Penzance

Pirates from Tintagel and Tintagel castle, Padstow Pirates, Padstow wreckers and buccaneers, Cornish Pirate booty, Cornish pirates treasure trove and treasure hoards, treasure maps and folk music from Cornish pirates. Shanty folk bands from Cornwall that sing about pirates also includes, folk bands that sing about pirate treasure, shanty bands and sea shanty performers such as Fishermans friends, Fishermans Friends from Port Isaac in Cornwall sing sea shanty songs about Cornish Pirates, the Pirates of Poundstock, Pirates from Mevagissy, Pirates of the north Cornwall coast and the south coast of Cornwall.

Jamaica inn housed Cornish pirates and smugglers treasure, looted booty and wreckers chests, gold dubloons and tea. Rum and Shanty singers. Shipwrecks, shipwrecks in Cornwall. Cornish treasure maps to date unfound included the treasure of Poundstock left by the Poundstock Pirates from north Cornwall, England. Rugby.

English piratesand British pirates including female prirates have afascinating history in Cornwall. Pirateering here was rife in 18thC Cornwall. So bad were the priates of these parts that many were hanged at Bodmin Goal.

Music in Cornwall, particularly Cornish music and Cornish Folk Music is predominantly Cornish traditional folk music about the sea, including iuts pirates, privateers, buccaneers, Cornish seamen and sailors such as Long John Silver. Sennen pirates and Sennen smuglers. Sennen cove and its role in Cornish Pirates and Smuggling